Oblivion:Infamy

Infamy is the opposite of Fame, and is found in the miscellaneous statistics menu. Infamy starts at zero for a new game, and represents a character's notoriety for evil deeds amongst the general population of Cyrodiil.

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Infamy affects the disposition of characters you meet. The exact effect depends upon the NPC's responsibility. NPCs with high responsibility will dislike you because of your infamy. At a responsibility of 100, an NPC's disposition will decrease 1 point for every 2 Infamy points. At lower responsibility, disposition decreases less rapidly with Infamy. For NPCs with a responsibility of about 10 or less, their disposition will actually increase as you gain Infamy. Disposition will be modified by at most 20 points due to Infamy (i.e., at most a 20 point loss for "good" NPCs at most a 20 point gain for "evil" NPCs). This modifier is calculated independently of the Fame disposition modifier.

Infamy limits your ability to use altars to the Nine Divines. If your Infamy exceeds your Fame, trying to use any chapel altar fails, giving the message "Repent your crimes, wicked one!" This means that you cannot receive the altars' blessings or the powerful healing that accompanies them.

The Vile Lair official plug-in adds a Shrine of Sithis that provides healing for "evil" characters: you can only receive its blessing if your Infamy exceeds your Fame. The shrine's blessing also provides additional benefits as your Infamy increases.

The Altar of Arden-Sul in New Sheoth in the Shivering Isles provides the same function of the main altar in chapels (i.e. restores attributes etc.), but is not affected by your Fame or Infamy.

You can continue to use wayshrines regardless of your Infamy and Fame levels (unless you have Knights of the Nine installed, in which case using wayshrines with any infamy will activate the Pilgrimage quest).

Infamy (and also Fame) grants the ability to activate additional Heaven Stones, providing your character with new unique Greater Powers. Each Heaven Stone can only be activated once your character has reached that stone's required renown (requirement is between 10-70).

With the Knights of the Nine official plug-in, if your Infamy is greater than 1 you will not be able to wear any of the Crusader's Relics.

Completing Dark Brotherhood quests result in gaining 1 Infamy point each, except for Honor Thy Mother which gives you 10, so by the time you become the Listener you will have gained 28 Infamy points total. This makes being a murderer in Cyrodiil only half as notorious as being a burglar on a per-quest basis, though the totals are essentially the same for both sets of quests.

Be mindful that whatever Infamy you earn for being caught committing crimes while fulfilling contracts for the Dark Brotherhood adds to your total Infamy. The less you are seen and caught, the less additional Infamy you will gain. Though, most Dark Brotherhood quests rely on the ability not to be seen so bluntly, so getting these additional Infamy will often forfeit early DB bonuses.

Choosing negative options during gameplay, such as completing quests that are immoral/illegal or choosing the immoral/illegal path, will result in Infamy. Also, being caught doing illegal things will often give you Infamy. However, the Infamy gained from negative quests is much lower if you simply don't get caught.

Wearing the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal makes others see you as the Gray Fox, not as your character's main persona. Donning the Cowl results in an immediate increase in Infamy (100 points) and a bounty of 500 Septims. Any Infamy, Fame, or bounties you earn while wearing the Cowl will be attributed to the Gray Fox. Thus you can hew an innocent citizen down in broad daylight with no effect on your personal standing as long as you are wearing the Cowl during the crime and subsequent escape. If you remove the Cowl before the guard begins his dialog, he will run up and begin with his normal dialog (where you can ask for directions, etc) even if you took the Cowl off right in front of him.

If you want to earn infamy for whatever reason, just kill off random citizens or guards, but take care not to kill important citizens such as shopkeepers or other service providers.